Born at Quercitello (Corsica), January 19, 1820
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, August 14, 1844
Oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, August 15, 1845 (no. 144)
Ordination to the priesthood at Ajaccio, June 24, 1851
Died at Vico, September 29, 1886.
Paul-Marie Pompei was born at Quercitello, Corsica, January 19, 1820, son of Marie Dominique Valentini and Paul Pierre Pompei. He received his first education from his great-uncle, Abbé Thomas Pompei, parish priest of Quercitello. He then had a few tutors before entering the school of Morosaglia, opened in 1833. In 1838, he followed his older brother to attend the Paoli de Corte school. During the Lent of 1840, as a result of some sermons that moved him, he decided to become a priest. Initially, his parents opposed this endeavour, but in the month of October, they allowed him to begin his philosophical studies at the major seminary of Ajaccio.
In the course of the year 1843-1844, while under the spiritual direction of Father Jean Lagier, he set his course for the religious life in the Oblate congregation. In the July 4, 1844 entry of his Diary, Bishop de Mazenod wrote that Father Moreau, the superior of the major seminary of Ajaccio ‘‘tells me of the pending departure of Pompei whom he praises highly.” August 14, the seminarian began his novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier. August 29, the Founder wrote to Father Moreau: “I received your Pompei with joy. He has been admitted to the novitiate with ten others. […] We will have Pompei work at his Latin during the novitiate; we noticed that he does not know it, which takes away nothing from his fine qualities.” (Letters to the Oblates of France, 1843-1849, Oblate Writings I, vol. 10, no. 852, p. 82)
After his oblation on August 15, 1845, he went to the major seminary in Marseilles to continue his theological studies. He soon fell ill and they sent him to Notre-Dame de Lumières. His condition worsened. His case was studied at the general council session of November 6. In the report on the session, the secretary noted: “Since his profession which he made in the month of August, [Brother Pompei] has gone into a manic state and every means that was taken to free him from this state failed.” They feared to see “full madness” develop. He asked to be dispensed from his vows and the council opinion was that his request should be granted.
Paul Marie returned home and received dispensation from his vows on November 6, 1845. After two years of rest and care, he was once again accepted at the major seminary of Ajaccio on December 26, 1847 and was ordained to the priesthood at Ajaccio on June 24, 1851. One month later, he returned to make a few months of novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier. He made his oblation, keeping the oblation number he had received in 1845 and then, in October, went on to begin a long career of teaching.
For twenty-five years, from 1851 to 1876, Father Pompei was in residence at the major seminary at Ajaccio where he functioned as treasurer, professor of dogma and eloquence, confessor for a community of religious sisters and occasional preacher of retreats. In 1876, he was sent to Vico as assistant priest in the parish of Nesa and as missionary. He died on September 29, 1886, struck down by a stroke that left him paralysed. His funeral rites were celebrated October 1 in the presence of a large congregation and on Saturday, October 2, he was buried in the community cemetery beside Fathers Albini, Moreau, Luigi, etc…
Father Santoni who, for several years was Father Pompei’s superior at Ajaccio, wrote a few pages about him. Among other things, he said: “Love of the Church and of impeccable doctrine was one of his distinctive traits. From that, we can deduce how great was his unceasing application to study, interrupted only by his duties of state which he never ceased carrying out with utmost fidelity. Indeed, he was above all else a man of the rule. I am not aware if, during his twenty-five years at the major seminary, he ever failed to observe the rule integrally in every detail. And, if it is true to say that to live according to the rule is to live in harmony with God, no one should be surprised to see how perfectly he practiced the virtues of his state in life.”
“His prayer life was outstanding, not as displayed by transient manifestations of fervour, but by his constant perseverance in prayer, accustomed as he was to spending all his spare time before the most Blessed Sacrament and also by his attitude of respect in sacred places. He was so still, one would have thought he was a statue, never batting an eye, so absorbed in God was he. His prayer life was the source of so many other virtues which made of him an consummate model of a genuine religious […]”
“To the extent that he was forgetful of himself, in that measure was he kind towards others, showing himself to be fully attentive to them, extremely tactful in their regard, anxious to please, to be of service no matter what it cost him. In addition, although his conversation was not especially engaging when it went beyond matters dealing with his areas of intellectual expertise, people still enjoyed conversing with him, so delightful was his simplicity, his gentleness of spirit, his habits of sometimes excessive self-depreciation. […]”
Father Pompei’s contemporaries considered him a holy man of a stature equal to Father Albini. Consideration was given to introducing his cause for beatification. But in 1891, in the wake of his family’s insistence that his body be transferred to the ancestral burial place in Quercitello, by and large, this project was subsequently consigned to oblivion.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
